Wasted hours add up

Kristi Barlett, Times Union

By Kristi Barlette

Updated 1:06 pm, Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Nearly 25 percent of workers spend an hour a day or more at work engaging in non-work related activities or being distracted from work. Click through the slideshow to see what CareerBuilder and Times Union readers say are some of the most common productivity killers.
(Todd Warnock, Lifesize Via Getty Images)

Nearly 25 percent of workers spend an hour a day or more at work...

Here are some things we do when we should be working: Cellphone/texting
(Getty Images)

Here are some things we do when we should be working:...

Gossip
(Getty Images)

Gossip

Smoke breaks
(Alexey Tkachenko, Getty Images)

Smoke breaks

Snack breaks
(Will Waldron)

Snack breaks

Meetings with no real agenda or control
(Martin Barraud, Getty Images)

Meetings with no real agenda or control

Email
()

Email

Social media
(Justin Sullivan, Getty Images)

Social media

Fantasy Football and other Internet temptations
(Screenshot, CBSSports.com)

Fantasy Football and other Internet temptations

Here are some things that happen at work which distract us: Co-workers putting calls on speakerphone
(Lisa Krantz, San Antonio Express-News)

Here are some things that happen at work which distract us:...

Co-workers dropping by
(Flickr)

Co-workers dropping by

Distractions, such as kids, that go along with working from home
(Lindsay Perry)

Nearly 25 percent of workers spend at least an hour of the workday on personal calls or sending personal emails or texts, according to a survey on Career Builder. Meanwhile, more than one in five admit they spend about an hour or more online engaging in nonwork-related activities.

Thanks to smartphones and social media, there are more distractions than ever before.

Some may call scrolling through your Facebook feed while on the phone with a client or chatting over your cube wall with your colleague while reviewing the month's budget multi-tasking but, in reality, things like this are affecting your productivity.

Here's a breakdown of the top 10 productivity killers at work, according to employers, and reported by Career Builder:

1 Cellphone/texting

2. Gossip

3. The Internet

4. Social media

5. Snack or smoke breaks

6. Noisy co-workers

7. Meetings

8. Email

9. Co-workers dropping by

10. Co-workers putting calls on speakerphone

Readers share what causes them to lose productivity. Read more, and add your thoughts at blog.timesunion.com/OnTheEdge, Facebook.com/AlbanyTimesUnion or Facebook.com/JustKristiOnline:

"Being hungry or thirsty."

— Becky Greenway

"Being too hot or too cold. The ventilation in our building sucks."

— Shalina L. Rossi

"I attempt to do work from home for the family business, but my two kids make it very difficult to get anything accomplished."

— Sarah Plante

"Facebook combined with my lack of focus at times, dangerous combo. That and a good, old fashioned 85-degree-and-sunny day."

— Brian Brosen

"Not sleeping well enough the night before. It's tough to multi-task, do physical labor and be chipper for clients."

— Ellie Burhans

"The constant interruptions."

— Mary Dylan

"Those not at their desk working but at someone else's desk chitchatting away. Forcing others to pick up the slack."